US · guidance
CMS SOM App. M, Tag L596
§418.64(d) Counseling services must include, but are not limited to, the following:
(1) Bereavement counseling. The hospice must:
(i) Have an organized program for the provision of bereavement services
furnished under the supervision of a qualified professional with
experience or education in grief or loss counseling.
(ii) Make bereavement services available to the family and other individuals
in the bereavement plan of care up to 1 year following the death of the
patient. Bereavement counseling also extends to residents of a SNF/NF or
ICF/MR when appropriate and identified in the bereavement plan of
care.
(iii) Ensure that bereavement services reflect the needs of the bereaved.
(iv) Develop a bereavement plan of care that notes the kind of bereavement
services to be offered and the frequency of service delivery. A special
coverage provision for bereavement counseling is specified in §418.204(c).
Interpretive Guidelines §418.64(d)(1)
The supervisor of bereavement services may be the IDG social worker or other
professional with documented evidence of experience or education in grief or loss
counseling.
History
Rev. 210; Issued:02-03-23; Effective:02-03-23; Implementation:02-03-23
Provenance
- Source
- cms.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-07-22
- Edition
- som-2026-07-22
- Content hash
5c82d22375c6cf8deed65194c059855228bda5990bc31e9169af2c7bfb2cf3c6
The link goes to the issuing authority’s own document — the one we read to produce this record. Where a source publishes whole titles rather than sections, your browser may need a moment to jump to the provision.
Unofficial copy of government-published law, reproduced from official sources with full provenance. Not an official publication; verify against official sources before relying on it in a filing. Records in the 'guidance' corpus, and only that corpus, are sub-regulatory (interpretive guidelines, survey procedures) and are not binding law. Validity bounds follow each jurisdiction's declared temporalBasis.